I was wondering if anyone else saw this pop up on eBay; one of the earliest audio interviews (or the earliest?) of Tolkien from a 1957 radio show in Chicago. There's a smattering of info/quotes from it here and there (H&S Chron. p 527, RG p514, 516; Annot. Hobbit p8, 210; ALA Bulletin, Feb 1957, p120, etc.) but I'm curious if there are other audio copies floating around (not including the 'tape recording' stored at the Library of Congress). Oxfam was selling it on eBay and in response to my question they surmised that, "perhaps only one acetate set was made at the recording session and that either that or a copy was used for the US broadcast." Does anyone here have additional info about this they'd be willing to share?

Oh yes, I was the buyer... forgot to say that. I was surprised there weren't many bidders and thought that maybe it was because there were more of these available or sold in a different (and maybe superior) format.

Khamûl wrote:Why would the Tolkien Estate ever own any interview with Tolkien?

Because they have more expensive lawyers than anyone else. I would have thought the copyright lies with the original radio station that made the recording, but expensive lawyers are actually all that matters with this kind of thing, thanks to Disney, mostly.

"I would have thought the copyright lies with the original radio station that made the recording" — Nope, not unless Tolkien assigned the copyright to them. Which he may well have done; but it's not a default/automatic arrangement. His words are his words.

Aelfwine wrote:"I would have thought the copyright lies with the original radio station that made the recording" — Nope, not unless Tolkien assigned the copyright to them. Which he may well have done; but it's not a default/automatic arrangement. His words are his words.

Is that definitely the case? It would render pretty much any interview impossible to broadcast. Surely the radio station must at least effectively have an implied perpetual license to use the words, even if the copyright remains with the interviewee.